Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that Israel will only agree to a permanent ceasefire in Gaza that guarantees the border area between southern Gaza and Egypt could never be used as a lifeline for the Islamist movement Hamas, APA reports citing Reuters.
"Until that happens, we're there," he told a news conference in Jerusalem.
Netanyahu repeated his outright rejection of a withdrawal from the so-called Philadelphi corridor in the first phase of a deal, expected to last 42 days, saying international pressure would make it effectively impossible to return.
"Somebody has to be there," he said. "Bring me anyone who will actually show - not on paper, not in words, not on a slide - but day after day, week after week, month after month, that they can actually prevent a recurrence of what happened there before," he said, referring to Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
"We're open to consider it, but I don't see that happening right now."